An Incredible 252 Solo Tackles For Eagles This Season

October 25, 1992|by TERRY LARIMER, The Morning Call

The Philadelphia Eagles can prove statistically that they are the best defensive team in football. Check the numbers. They've given up the least yards of any team this season and are tied with the Steelers for giving up the least points.

What people don't realize is that the Eagles are also perhaps the best tackling team in pro football. They're so good, in fact, that their statistics show they are tackling 40 percent more people than are actually running the ball at them. And that's a conservative number.

Eagles stats show that the team has made an incredible 252 solo tackles this season. The number doesn't include assists or tackles on special teams. Yet opponents have run only 173 plays on which they could have been tackled, and perhaps less when you take into account those who ran out of bounds.

Here's how it breaks down. Opponents have run 323 total plays, but 33 of those were punts, 87 were passes that either fell incomplete or were intercepted and 30 of those plays either went for touchdowns or were field goal attempts. So only 173 tackles were possible.

If you throw in the Eagles assists and divide that number even by three tacklers per tackle, that would add another 32 tackles to the total. That would mean the Eagles have had 282 tackles on 173 plays or they've tackled 63 percent more ball carriers than have actually run at them. Amazing, but perhaps the kind of effort -- or imagination -- that it takes to be No. 1.

The tackling stats are compiled by coaches looking at game film and they haven't looked at film of games 4 and 6, relying instead on stats kept during the game in the press box. But the numbers are impressive -- if not awesome -- nevertheless.

By comparison, the Phoenix Cardinals, ranked just 26th in the NFL this year on defense, have tackling numbers that show why. The Cards are only tackling 3 percent more ball carriers than are running at them. They have made 278 tackles on 266 plays where that was possible. So it's obvious: If you want to have a top-notch defense in the NFL, you need 11 great players --and a friendly statistician.

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Cardinals tight end Willy Wright is the man who can deal with those kind of numbers. Seems he was originally a linebacker when he was signed as a free agent out of Wyoming. But somewhere between his first and second year with the Cardinals, with a season with Frankfurt of the World League in between, Wright was converted to end.

This week he agreed to give new Cardinal acquisition John Jackson his jersey number -- 80, because he's hardly become attached to it. In the past two years he's worn 52 with the Cardinals, 59 in the World League, 92 in Cardinals minicamp, 31 in training camp, 80 at the start of the season and now 84.

He commented, "If they keep putting my name on the back of my shirt, I should be able to keep it straight. I should be able to know who I am."

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One columnist covering the Los Angeles Rams said Cleveland Gary should know who he is, too, because he's named after the two worst towns in America. Cleveland, the running back, not the town, said this week that there are two Cleveland's inside him, one that tells him he's good and one that tells him he's still not good enough.

Gary, the runner, not the town, has come alive this season and is making it easier for Everett, the California quarterback, not the Washington town, to pass. Everett had a career-best 83.3 percent throwing effort against the 49ers two weeks ago, then topped it with an 18-for-21 (85.7 percent) outing last week against the Giants.

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Cleveland, the town, not the player, was the destination this week for Packers Tony Mandarich, who became ill last week and went searching for a specialist in thyroid problems.

Packers line coach Tom Lovat said, "I would say that it's a long shot that he plays this year. He has to get well, he has to get his strength and his timing back. Every time he breaks ranks he loses that."

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Speaking of No. 1 draft picks who aren't quite living up to their contracts, our friend Ray "Interstate 80" Roberts was in the news again. The Seahawks No. 1 draft pick, who got his nickname because he's become a highway to Seahawks quarterbacks, was the subject of a barb from Raiders defensive end Howie Long.

Roberts, who's given up nine sacks and has been hit with six false starts and four holding penalties, was compared by Long to a Baskin Robbins ice cream parlor. "Guys are lining up to take a number to line up over him," Long claimed.

Behind Roberts, the Seahawks haven't scored a touchdown in 12 quarters, 44 series and 180 plays.